The Dicke model and the Rabi model can undergo phase transitions from the normal phase to the superradiant phase at the same boundary, which can be accurately determined using some approximated approaches. The underlying mechanism for this coincidence is still unclear, and the universality class of these two models is elusive. Here we prove this phase transition exactly using the path-integral approach based on the faithful Schwinger fermion representation, and give a unified phase boundary condition for these models. We demonstrate that at the phase boundary, the fluctuation of the bosonic field is vanished, thus, it can be treated as a classical field, based on which a much simplified method to determine the phase boundary is developed. This explains why the approximated theories by treating the operators as classical variables can yield the exact boundary. We use this method to study several similar spin and boson models, showing its much wider applicability than the previously used approaches. Our results demonstrate that these phase transitions belong to the same universality by the classical Landau theory of phase transition from a more general way, which can be confirmed using the platforms in the recent experiments.
The Dicke model and the Rabi model can undergo phase transitions from the normal phase to the superradiant phase at the same boundary, which can be accurately determined using some approximated approaches. The underlying mechanism for this coincidence is still unclear, and the universality class of these two models is elusive. Here we prove this phase transition exactly using the path-integral approach based on the faithful Schwinger fermion representation, and give a unified phase boundary condition for these models. We demonstrate that at the phase boundary, the fluctuation of the bosonic field is vanished, thus, it can be treated as a classical field, based on which a much simplified method to determine the phase boundary is developed. This explains why the approximated theories by treating the operators as classical variables can yield the exact boundary. We use this method to study several similar spin and boson models, showing its much wider applicability than the previously used approaches. Our results demonstrate that these phase transitions belong to the same universality by the classical Landau theory of phase transition from a more general way, which can be confirmed using the platforms in the recent experiments.
We prove that superradiant phase transitions (SPTs) of the Dicke model and its generalizations in the thermodynamic and classical oscillator limit are indeed of the same type. In this sense, we unify SPTs under both limits at zero and finite temperature. We show that the mean-field approximation for bosons is exact in both cases, and compute the structure and location of the phase transitions in parameter space using a concise analytic method. Moreover, we illustrate how SPT properties (first order, second order, or none) are related to symmetry. Finally, we uncover general features of the phase structure in the space of parameters of these models with dipolar couplings. There will be a region of normal phase in the neighborhood of the origin of the space of dipolar couplings $\stackrel{P\vec}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}$, and that generally one flows radially in this space to a superradiant phase.
Abstract We explore an extended quantum Rabi model describing the interaction between a two-mode bosonic field and a three-level atom. Quantum phase transitions of this few degree of freedom model is found when the ratio η of the atom energy scale to the bosonic field frequency approaches infinity. An analytical solution is provided when the two lowest-energy levels are degenerate. According to it, we recognize that the phase diagram of the model consists of three regions: one normal phase and two superradiant phases. The quantum phase transitions between the normal phase and the two superradiant phases are of second order relating to the spontaneous breaking of the discrete Z 2 symmetry. On the other hand, the quantum phase transition between the two different superradiant phases is discontinuous with a phase boundary line relating to the continuous U (1) symmetry. For a large enough but finite η , the scaling function and critical exponents are derived analytically and verified numerically, from which the universality class of the model is identified.
Abstract Phase transitions are both thermodynamically and quantum-mechanically ubiquitous in nature and laboratories, and their understanding remains one of the most active issues in modern physics and related disciplines. The Landau theory provides a general framework to describe phenomenologically phase transitions by introducing order parameters and associated symmetry breaking. This theory is also taken as a starting point to explore critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions in the renormalization group, which provides a complete theoretical description of behaviors close to critical points. In this context, the microscopic mechanism of phase transitions remains unclear. In this study, we explore the microscopic mechanism of the superradiant phase transition in the quantum Rabi model (QRM). First, we perform a diagonalization operation in an operator space to obtain three fundamental patterns, denoted as λ 1 , λ 2 , and λ 3 , involved in the QRM. Then, we explicitly analyze the energy evolutions of these patterns with increasing coupling strength. The observed characteristic behaviors reveal the microscopic mechanism of the superradiant phase transition as a consequence of competition between patterns due to different phase relations. In other words, with increasing coupling strength, the pattern λ 1 drives the phase transition, the pattern λ 2 exhibits a similar response speed but less energy compensation than the pattern λ 1 , and the pattern λ 3 exhibits a slow response speed but plays a key role in the balance between it and the pattern λ 1 , which stabilizes the new phase. This type of dissecting mechanism explains why and how the superradiant phase transition occurs in the QRM and paves the way for exploring the microscopic mechanism of phase transitions that occur frequently in nature.
We investigate a generalized Dicke model by introducing two interacting spin ensembles coupled with a single-mode bosonic field. Apart from the normal to superradiant phase transition induced by the strong spin-boson coupling, interactions between the two spin ensembles enrich the phase diagram by introducing ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases. The mean-field approach reveals a phase diagram comprising three phases: paramagnetic-normal phase, ferromagnetic-superradiant phase, and antiferromagnetic-normal phase. Ferromagnetic spin-spin interaction can significantly reduce the required spin-boson coupling strength to observe the superradiant phase, where the macroscopic excitation of the bosonic field occurs. Conversely, antiferromagnetic spin-spin interaction can strongly suppress the superradiant phase. To examine higher-order quantum effects beyond the mean-field contribution, we utilize the Holstein-Primakoff transformation, which converts the generalized Dicke model into three coupled harmonic oscillators in the thermodynamic limit. Near the critical point, we observe the close of the energy gap between the ground and the first excited states, the divergence of entanglement entropy and quantum fluctuation in certain quadrature. These observations further confirm the quantum phase transition and offer additional insights into critical behaviors.
The emergence of multiple superradiant phases in Dicke lattice models has attracted considerable attention in the quantum optics community. However, a unified understanding of the origin of multistability and its relation to different superradiant phases is still lacking. Here, we develop a configuration-based understanding to classify the superradiant phases in Dicke lattices. We show that photon hopping naturally organizes the possible superradiant configurations according to the lattice symmetry, providing a unified interpretation of the nonequilibrium phase diagram and the emergence of multistability. For the dissipative four-site Dicke lattice, we obtain the complete phase diagram and identify the coexistence of up to four stable superradiant phases. The proposed classification is further extended to five- and six-site lattices. Moreover, we demonstrate that the same configuration-based understanding also applies to the closed Dicke lattice, where the ground state uniquely selects one of the allowed configurations. Finally, we show that different configurations may belong to either same or distinct nonequilibrium universality classes in the dissipative Dicke lattice, while they share the same equilibrium universality class in the closed Dicke lattice. Our results provide a unified picture for understanding equilibrium and nonequilibrium superradiant phase transitions in Dicke lattices.
The Dicke model describes an ensemble of N identical two-level atoms (qubits) coupled to a single quantized mode of a bosonic field. The fermion Dicke model should be obtained by changing the atomic pseudo-spin operators by a linear combination of Fermi operators. The generalized fermion Dicke model is defined introducing different coupling constants between the single mode of the bosonic field and the reservoir, g1 and g2 for rotating and counter-rotating terms respectively. In the limit N → ∞, the thermodynamic of the fermion Dicke model can be analyzed using the path integral approach with functional method. The system exhibits a second order phase transition from normal to superradiance at some critical temperature with the presence of a condensate. We evaluate the critical transition temperature and present the spectrum of the collective bosonic excitations for the general case (g1 ̸ = 0 and g2 ̸ = 0). There is quantum critical behavior when the coupling constants g1 and g2 satisfy g1 + g2 = (ω0 Ω) 1 2, where ω0 is the frequency of the mode of the field and Ω is the energy gap between energy eigenstates of the qubits. Two particular situations are analyzed. First, we present the spectrum of the collective bosonic excitations, in the case g1 ̸ = 0 and g2 = 0, recovering the well known results. Second, the case g1 = 0 and g2 ̸ = 0 is studied. In this last case, it is possible to have a superradiant phase when only virtual processes are introduced in the interaction Hamiltonian. Here also appears a quantum phase transition at the critical coupling g2 = (ω0 Ω) 1 2, and for larger values for the critical coupling, the system enter in this superradiant phase with a Goldstone mode.